Category Archives: Community

The ECU Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement (CLCE) will kick off the Fall Week of Service on Saturday, Sept. 9 through service to the Pitt County community. During the week, CLCE will promote positive change by hosting service projects throughout Pitt County. The week will conclude on Friday, Sept. 15 with a Family Weekend Service Day.

Community partner service sites include Making Pitt Fit Community Garden, A Time for Science, MacGregor Downs Health & Rehabilitation, and River Park North.

On Monday, Sept. 11, CLCE will partner with the University Writing Center and Student Government Association to host a unique program called Design for Change. This event provides the opportunity for attendees to promote positive change in remembrance of Sept. 11, 2001. There will be four stations where participants can engage:

Write for Change: Participants may write letters for change they wish to see on a local, national and/or international level.

Design for Change: Participants may paint ECU Peace Rocks to keep or to hide around campus as reminders of peace and positive change.

Commit to Change: Participants may write on a chalkboard/poster board their commitment to positive change by completing the sentence, “I will commit to change by …”

Post for Change: Participants may take a photo with an Instagram cutout and post to social media using the hashtag #Pirates4Peace.

All volunteers and participants are encouraged to upload images to social media during the entire Fall Week of Service by using #Pirates4Peace.

ECU students, faculty and staff can learn more about Fall Week of Service and the various projects through the 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance portal on OrgSync (https://orgsync.com/115270/chapter).

Kindergartners make boxes from a sheet of paper. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)

Emily Benson, an ECU senior majoring in art education from Kinston, was one of the teachers for the STEAM camp.

“I just realized how much fun the kids have with any project,” Benson said. “I realized how much they love learning.”

Director of the STEAM camp Robert Quinn said he was excited about his art education students getting hands-on experience with the younger learners and delivering fun learning experiences.

Noah Blumenstein, a second-grade student at St. Peter’s Catholic School, said his favorite part of the STEAM camp was getting to make a guitar and learning how to etch.

At drama camp, children learned about performance, movement, playwriting, self-expression, self-confidence, group work and celebrating each other’s accomplishments.

Drama Camp instructor Rachel Hutzenbiler works on an improvisation exercise at the Messick Theater Arts Center on Monday, July 17, 2017. (Photo by Rhett Butler)

“We celebrate the imagination through the process of theatre,” said Patch Clark, director of the camp.

Cameron Bowen, a rising eighth-grader at Hope Middle School, said her favorite activity was practicing for the “Final Share,” a play put on by the campers and performed on Saturday morning for parents, family members and the community to show what the campers learned throughout the week.

Morgan Boyce, a rising seventh-grader at Arendell Parrott Academy, said her favorite part of the week was making puppets and learning more about movement.

Greenville native Alex Munn, an ECU junior theatre arts major with a dual concentration in both design and production focusing on properties and youth theatre, has enjoyed his time working with the kids.

Children in a K-2 Drama Camp class participate in a story during camp. (Photo by Rhett Butler)

“To actually work as a teacher was a very eye-opening job,” Munn said.

Munn attended the camp before he enrolled in the School of Theatre and Dance and wanted to be apart of the camp this year to keep the tradition going, he said.

The William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library at East Carolina University hosted “Potion Power: Medicinal Herb Discoveries for Kids” on July 19 for nearly 100 children and parents as part of a botanical exhibit from ECU’s Country Doctor Museum.

Microscope station participants. (Photos by Michelle Messer)

On display in the library’s fourth floor gallery, “Nature’s Remedies: Traditions of Botanical Medicine,” explores the history of using herbs and other plants as remedies and preventatives and showcases objects used by ordinary consumers, druggists and medical practitioners in their search for relief and well-being.

“We were really overwhelmed by the attendance and positive response from the families who came out for our event,” said Beth Ketterman, interim director of Laupus Library. “The kids all seemed really excited by the interactive stations and the chance to talk with our experts about the plants they were viewing and handling.”

During the afternoon, attendees visited the exhibit and participated in hands-on learning and exploration stations including one where they made dream pillows using traditional medicinal herbs and mortars and pestles. An old-fashioned pharmacy station required them to use math skills, play dough and antique pill rollers to fill prescriptions. At the microscope station, they discovered a wide range of plant and animal cells up close. And finally, they were given a chance to color historic botanical drawings from the pages of the oldest coloring book in the world.

Kent and John fill a prescription using an antique pill roller.

A team of Country Doctor Museum curators and staff from Laupus Library’s History Program offered attendees a brief history of the medicinal practices presented at each station and answered questions about health care needs in the past.

Live leeches, antique bloodletting tools, and a large collection of artifacts were also brought in from the Country Doctor Museum for the day as part of an educational demonstration for everyone.

Seven-year-old attendee Jason Sturz, who wants to be a paleontologist one day, said his favorite station was the microscopes and slides. “They are the coolest because they show everything up close,” he said. “That’s way easier than trying to catch a bug and look at it through a magnifying glass.”

Jason’s mother, Sarah Sturz said her children are homeschooled so she’s always looking for something educational and fun for them to attend. “Jason likes to talk to people and we’re working on social skills so I figured this was a good educational opportunity for him,” she explained. “He loved it.”

Alice Barber, age ten, found out about the event through ECU’s Campus Recreation Wellness Summer Camp she attends each week. She said she’s interested in science and medicine because she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. “I like the library,” she said. “It has so much cool stuff to learn about.”

“We will definitely pursue more events of this nature in the future,” said Ketterman. “The library and our museum have a lot more in our collections to inspire these kids, who all have the potential to be the next great leaders in healthcare.”

The exhibit will be on display until Aug. 21.

For more information about the event please contact Kelly Rogers Dilda at rogerske@ecu.edu or 252-744-2232.

“Carolina Colas and Carbonated Treasures” is on display in the Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection on the third floor of Joyner Library.

Exhibited treasures include vintage advertisements and antique glass soda bottles, most of which were bottled in Greenville, North Carolina. Other items on display are letters, photographs and local memorabilia.

Visitors will learn how the famous soda brands and their local imitators got their start, along with the history of local bottling companies in Greenville and other successful regional enterprises.

The Cola Wars started long before Lionel Ritchie or Michael Jackson ever cut a record. Beginning in the late 1880s the success of Coca-Cola sparked a legion of imitators. Here in the Carolinas, Brad’s Drink proved the most successful on both a local and national scale.

Brad’s Drink, the original name for Pepsi-Cola, came from New Bern pharmacist and drugstore owner Caleb Bradham, who invented the concoction in the 1890s. In August 1898, Bradham named his creation Pepsi-Cola.

The national brands were originally delivered as syrups for distribution at an established soda fountain. Drugstores and other locations with soda fountains served as social hang-outs for all ages and classes. As the idea of individual servings caught on, a franchise bottling system developed to distribute the national brands. The process encouraged the growth of local bottling companies all across the country. In the southeast, such companies were particularly numerous.

During the mid-1930s, the town of New Bern was home to four different bottling companies. At times, Greenville and Washington hosted as many as five separate bottling plants. It was not long before a host of local bottlers were trying their hands at crafting soft drink formulas.

Dr. Shelia Bunch, professor and director of the School of Social Work at East Carolina University, has been appointed to the Pitt County Board of Social Services.

Dr. Shelia Bunch (contributed photo)

Effective July 1, she will serve through June 30, 2020. Drew Pledger, chair of the North Carolina Social Services Commission, announced Bunch’s appointment on June 30. She was sworn in July 11.

“I am excited about the appointment,” Bunch said. “Our School of Social Work has a great working relationship with the local DSS agency, which employs many of our alumni and serves as a field internship site for our students.”

Bunch received her bachelor’s degree from ECU, a master’s in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctoral degree from North Carolina State University.

Her research interests include rural domestic violence, rural social work education, issues related to children and families and social inequality.

The Pitt County Department of Social Services is a human services organization that provides many programs including food and nutrition services, adult protective services, child services including child support enforcement, and emergency assistance to residents.

Pitt Community College administrators took time during Thursday’s graduation ceremony to show their appreciation to three Board of Trustees members for outstanding service to the college and community.

Before nearly 700 graduates turned their tassels in East Carolina University’s Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, Distinguished Service Awards were presented to former trustees Virginia Hardy and Jimmy Nelson and current trustee Walter Williams.

Hardy, a Greenville native, is ECU’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. She served as a PCC Trustee from 2008 to 2016, after being appointed to the board by Pitt County Commissioners. As a trustee, she chaired the college’s Personnel Committee for two years and served on numerous other committees.

In presenting Hardy with her award, PCC Trustee Patti Sanders-Smith noted that Hardy utilized the student affairs and employee leadership experience she gained at ECU to provide trustees and college administrative staff with welcomed insight throughout her eight years of service.

Dr. Virginia Hardy. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)

When she first joined PCC’s governing board, Hardy called it a chance to serve the community. She praised the college for its versatility in meeting the training needs of local business and industry and for giving people “choices to better their lives.”

The youngest of eight children, Hardy earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She later received a master’s in counseling from ECU and a Ph.D. in counseling from N.C. State University.

“Education has always been important to both my family and me,” she said. “My parents expected that each of us would attain postsecondary education so that we would be afforded opportunities that weren’t available to them.”

A Bethel native, Nelson was appointed to the board by former Gov. Mike Easley in 2004. In 12 years as a trustee, he served on several committees and chaired the Building and Grounds Committee during the planning stages of the Science and Technology Center now under construction and scheduled to open later this year.

Nelson’s first encounter with PCC came as a high school student, when he enrolled in several college courses before graduating from North Pitt. He went on to enroll at UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead Scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1977.

As a UNC student, Nelson participated in student government and varsity athletics. As a member of the Tar Heels track team, he was named to the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll.

Nelson continued his studies at Campbell University School of Law and received a law degree in 1980. He joined the firm of Mark W. Owens Jr., where he was named a partner in 1983 and continues to practice to this day.

The son of Frances Nelson and the late Jimmy Nelson Sr., Jimmy Nelson Jr. and his wife, Beth, have three adult children – Jay, Suzanne and McKenna.

Williams, who has been a PCC Trustee since 2005, is an ECU alumnus and the founder of Trade Oil Company. A Pitt County Commissioners appointee, he has referred to PCC as “an investment in the area’s future” and has served on numerous college committees, including Building and Grounds, Finance and Audit, and Personnel.

“Mr. Williams has frequently served as the legislative liaison with elected officials of the North Carolina General Assembly for the Board of Trustees,” PCC Trustee Don Mills said in presenting Williams with his award. “His counsel has been invaluable in advocating for community college budget priorities.”

Mills noted that it was rather appropriate for Williams to receive his Distinguished Service Award during a PCC graduation ceremony taking place in a facility that bears his name.

Raised on a tobacco farm just south of Greenville, Williams has long given back to his community, both financially and through volunteer service.

In 2007, the Council for the Support and Advancement of Education named him its southeast regional winner of the Bill Franklin Volunteer of the Year Award in recognition of his dedicated service to his alma mater. A year later, he served as co-chair of the PCC Foundation’s Futures First Campaign Committee, helping raise $8 million to fund new technology, student scholarships and construction of a 34,000-square-foot addition to the college’s health sciences facilities.

“You can go through life coasting or floating along, or you can be aggressive,” Williams said of the campaign. “If the leadership and citizens of Pitt County want Pitt Community College to be on the cutting edge, then we need to move forward, and the capital campaign is just part of moving forward.”

PCC has presented Distinguished Service Awards each spring during graduation since the honor was created by trustees in 1989 to recognize individuals for their efforts to enhance the college’s mission and services.

Tuesday was Meranda and Rusty Baggett’s 19th wedding anniversary. They spent it working on their relationship while helping other military members, veterans and their spouses work on theirs.

East Carolina University’s Campus Recreation and Wellness partnered with the Wounded Warrior Project to host a Project Odyssey Retreat at the Belk Building rope course. (Photos by Cliff Hollis)

The Baggetts were one of 14 couples in which one or both spouses were active duty or retired servicemembers and one was dealing with a traumatic brain injury, combat stress or a post-traumatic stress disorder. They were at East Carolina University as part of a Wounded Warriors Project Odyssey Retreat to help military couples learn to rebuild trust in their relationships affected by combat stresses and experiences.

ECU provided a low ropes course at the Blount Complex on Tuesday and planned a canoe trip along the Tar River for Wednesday.

Jenna Potter, combat stress recovery specialist for Project Odyssey and a 2015 recreation therapy graduate of ECU, contacted university staff members last fall about hosting a Wounded Warrior event. After talking, they decided it was a natural fit.

The group makes it way through a spider web in a cave while maintaining group contact.

“It just kind of clicked in my head,” said Potter, whose parents were in the Air Force. “I knew Pirate Nation is a strong community and has so much love no matter what. Within weeks, we had a great relationship going.”

“It was really a no-brainer to offer the collaboration,” said Adrienne Fike, assistant director for adventure leadership with Campus Recreation and Wellness, whose husband was wounded while on duty with the Marine Corps. “Wounded Warrior is a project that was looking for something really specific. The fact we got to be that is really great.”

Rusty Baggett was a master sergeant and medical operations specialist in the 18th Airborne Corps. After serving for 16 years from Hawaii to Iraq to Afghanistan, it was a routine training flight out of Fort Bragg in November 2010 – a month before he was to ship out for another mission to Iraq –that ended his military career.

People balance on a wooden surface.

He remembered being in the plane. The next thing he remembered was being in a hospital a month later. In between, he jumped from the plane, and experts pieced together that apparently a gust of wind caused his parachute to collapse about 100 feet from the ground. He crashed, broke his pelvis and had two brain bleeds. Sixteen of the 30 jumpers were injured during the exercise.

Meranda Baggett recalled rushing to the hospital after getting the call that he was critically injured.

“When I got there, what broke my heart the most was he didn’t know who I was,” she said. “That broke my heart.”

Months later, something else would bother her husband.

“I was still bitter that I wasn’t going to Iraq for the second time,” he said. “That was my job. That’s what I did.”

Meranda Baggett lifts a rope high to keep tension on it.

Seven years later, he still has short-term memory loss. Thus, they plan each day with an online calendar, right down to what they’re having for each meal. And he says the civilian world lacks the camaraderie and organization of the military.

“I had to find out where I fit in,” he said.

The couple, who met when they were 14 and have an 18-year-old daughter, found that together with the Wounded Warrior Project. After participating in a few odysseys, they are now peer mentors – helping other active and retired servicemembers. The camaraderie is back.

“We have the same pains and things we can work through, and we can do it together and learn from each other,” said Rusty Baggett, who graduated in May from Methodist College with a degree in health services administration.

This week’s event was the first Project Odyssey at ECU. Another one is scheduled for July, and more are tentatively planned for next year.

A blue sky and mild temperatures provided the perfect backdrop for the 10th annual Pirate Alumni Road Race, which was held in Greenville Saturday, April 22. The 5K and 1-mile fun run provided some competition as a way to raise funds for scholarships.

“This is one of our major scholarship fundraisers for the year. It’s a great opportunity for people to not only to have fun and be active, but also to help us with scholarships,” said Heath Bowman, president of the East Carolina Alumni Association.

PeeDee was the first one out when the cannon went off, but he couldn’t hold onto the lead for the 10th annual Pirate Alumni Road Race. PeeDee got a “did not finish” while No. 49, Patrick Creech, came in first in his age group. (Photos curtesy of the Alumni Association)

Bowman said they have 21 East Carolina Alumni Scholars this year and give away nearly $50,000 in scholarships every year. Many of the scholarship recipients were either volunteering or running in the event.

“A lot of students rely on financial aid and scholarship support, and so we feel like this is part of our mission to assist students and to help alumni and future alumni have a great experience here at ECU and to be able to obtain a higher education,” said Bowman.

PeeDee welcomes a couple of finishers, sporting their Pirate Alumni Road Race T-shirts, as they cross the finish line.

ECU sophomore and alumni association scholar Jacob Walker is a public health studies and chemistry major who hopes to go to medical school. He said his alumni scholarship is vital to him attaining that goal.

“It’s been so important to me. I don’t really have a good financial background with my parents,” said Walker. “My mom has been a single mom of three for most of her life, and it’s been really hard. A lot of the financial burden is on me. This scholarship has really helped me in terms of paying for my own education.”

All of the 250 race participants received a T-shirt, and the top three finishers in each age group won medals. Approximately $6,000 was raised for scholarships. The students benefiting from the fundraiser said they are appreciative of those who took part.

“Thank you (donors) so much. It means the world to us that you would give back to the university and help students like us,” said ECU junior and alumni association scholar Stephanie Morales, who was volunteering at the event.

The next alumni association scholarship fundraiser will be the Purple Gold Golf Open, set for Sept. 15 at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville. More information about the alumni association is at http://www.piratealumni.com.

Nearly 300 high school juniors from across eastern North Carolina recently visited East Carolina University (ECU) to experience and learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) opportunities offered at the University. ECU’s College of Engineering and Technology, the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Education, including the STEM Center for Education, sponsored the event and provided more than 60 volunteers.

Determining the types of clays that might be addressed on a construction site

Exploring how high-resolution 3D models are captured using a simulation of unmanned aircraft systems, and how to analyze and visualize environmental change

Using cryptography to send secure messages and how it is used in the military for confidential communication and secure online banking, shopping and other applications

Area high school juniors recently visited ECU for the sixth annual High School Stem Day. Fifteen hands-on sessions were scheduled that represented a wide variety of education opportunities available at the University. (Photos by Cliff Hollis)

Margaret Turner, director of marketing and outreach for ECU’s College of Engineering and Technology, helped organize both events and also helped organize the five former high school STEM Days. Over the years, she’s noticed a very obvious increase in students interested in STEM. Not only does STEM Day introduce these students to exciting and interesting careers, Turner enjoys introducing these students to a university that can help them capture their future, STEM-related degrees.

“I see the excitement in the students faces every time they step on campus and into the sessions,” said Turner. “I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to let them know that if they do pursue a STEM-related career, ECU is a great choice to get them started.

Students Managing Students

Helping Turner organize this year’s event were three college students pursuing their own STEM-related degrees in engineering. Juniors Jessica Campos, Meagan Smith, and Malik Simon provided Turner with project management support. As part of a class assignment in an engineering project management course, they helped Turner with everything from volunteer training, the session schedule, transportation and communication.

“STEM day was an effective way to show how much detail goes into planning an event,” said Smith. “There were months of meetings that involved brainstorming on how to improve the planning process and ways to improve how the day would flow.”

Part of that brainstorming saw the introduction of social media to help with communication between all volunteers. The application that was used is called GroupMe.

Juniors Meagan Smith (left), Jessica Campos (right) and Malik Simon (not pictured) provided project management support for High School STEM Day. This marked the first time students played a role in managing the event.

“We had volunteers outside Wright circle waiting for high schools to drop off their students, and with this app, our volunteers were able to tell us what schools were here, where to meet them, the final number of students they brought and more,” said Campos. “Throughout the day we were able to communicate any issues that arose using GroupMe, and with everyone’s input, we were able to resolve those issues.”

“Throughout the day we were able to communicate any issues that arose using GroupMe, and with everyone’s input, we were able to resolve those issues.”

“Jessica, Meagan and Malik did a wonderful job in helping make sure we had another successful STEM day,” added Turner. “I think they learned a great deal about the many logistics involved in organizing such a large event. They were also proud to see the event happen and go smoothly and realize they had a large part in planning it.”

This was the first time college students helped with managing the event.